Field
This application relates to a treatment chamber or a treatment carrier for use in a device for treating at least one medical or dental instrument, as well as a treatment device having such a treatment chamber and/or such a treatment carrier.
Description of Prior Art
Treatment devices are used for cleaning, disinfecting, sterilizing and/or caring of medical, in particular dental, instruments. Instruments to be treated are understood in particular to include straight, curved or pistol-shaped handpieces as well as parts of handpieces, e.g., handpiece heads having a tool receptacle for receiving a treatment tool, adapters and couplings. Supply lines for driving the treatment tool as well as fluid lines often run through the handpieces. In particular, these lines are transmission channels or fluid channels for air, water or spray.
For treating the medical instruments, in particular their drive channels as well as fluid channels, the devices, in particular the sterilizers, autoclaves or thermal disinfectors introduce at least one operating medium into a treatment chamber in which the at least one medical, in particular dental, instrument is carried, preferably by means of a treatment carrier, or they feed the medium directly to the at least one medical instrument. Liquids, for example, hot water or steam, in particular saturated steam, are preferably used as the operating media.
It is known in the state of the art that the operating media are heated to a treatment temperature in the treatment devices. To do so, heating devices are provided in the treatment devices. In sterilizers and autoclaves these devices are designed as independent vaporizers, which convert water as an operating medium into saturated steam. The steam is then sent through at least one line to the treatment chamber, the treatment carrier or directly to the medical instrument to heat the medical instrument to 134 degrees Celsius.
Furthermore, it is known in the state of the art, in particular in the case of sterilizers and autoclaves, that the treatment chambers of the treatment devices can be preheated by means of additional heating elements, which are also provided in the treatment devices. This makes it possible to reduce the amount of steam needed to heat the at least one medical instrument to 134 degrees Celsius. The heating elements here are arranged in the treatment devices in such a way that they are in thermal contact with the treatment chambers, so that there is a transfer of heat from the heating elements to the treatment chambers.
One disadvantage of these embodiments of the treatment devices has proven to be the arrangement of the plurality of heating devices and/or heating elements, in particular as independent units, in the treatment devices.
Due to the design of the heating devices and/or the heating elements as independent components, it is necessary to transfer the quantities of heat generated from the heating devices and/or heating elements directly or indirectly by means of one or more operating media to the treatment chambers, treatment carriers or medical instruments. However, this transfer of the quantities of heat generated is associated with disadvantages. In particular, the transmission of the operating media from the heating devices to the treatment chambers by means of fluid lines or media lines results in thermal losses. In addition, the coupling of the independent heating elements to the treatment chambers constitutes a problem. To minimize the thermal losses in the transfer of the thermal energies, it is necessary to adapt the heating elements to the shapes of the treatment chambers. However, the chambers themselves are preferably adapted to the shape of the medical instruments to be treated and therefore have complex shapes in some cases, which makes the coupling of the heating elements to the treatment chambers difficult.
Another disadvantage is the need for space in the treatment devices for the plurality of heating devices and/or heating elements as well as their connecting lines to the treatment chambers. These heating devices must be accommodated in the treatment devices in addition to the treatment chambers, the control units as well as additional relevant components. This in turn interferes with a user-friendly design of the treatment devices, in particular with a space-saving design of the devices.
Other disadvantage is the high cost of the numerous components, in particular for heating the operating media, for thermally insulated transport of the media and for preheating the treatment chambers.